‘If you don’t rush, you don’t finish’: Accelerating work and production of a vector body in Spanish hotel room attendants

Abstract

The growth of the hotel industry in Spain in recent decades has meant, among other things, the acceleration of the hotel room attendants’ labour. An overload of physical activity, illnesses, and physical and mental exhaustion are the most visible consequences. Based on a qualitative study carried out with hotel room attendants working in Spanish hotels, the article analyses the effects of work intensification on room attendants’ representation of their bodies. The results show that rather than the typical description of their body as a machine that must withstand high pressure, hotel room attendants define it as a vector body constructed through multiple flows and demands, which has to speed up its pace, being constantly overwhelmed and self-managed in the process. We discuss how the acceleration of work in hotels is the result of a series of organizational and individual practices, impacting the representation and corporal practice of the hotel room attendants.